Brian Benza
16 November 2007
Gaborone — The Diamond Trading Company Botswana (DTCB) says all 16 diamond cutting and polishing companies registered in Botswana have met its criteria for supply and will become its sightholders for the next three years.
DTC Botswana is taking over from the Botswana Diamond Valuing Company (BDVC), which will cease to run as a subsidiary of Debswana but will run along as its sorting, valuing, sales and marketing arm.
All the 16 diamond cutting and polishing companies were licensed by government this year and will be supplied with aggregated mixtures from DTC Botswana.
Speaking in an interview in Gaborone on Wednesday, DTC Botswana chairman Varda Shine said the outcome of the first application process for the supply of rough diamonds to manufacturers in Botswana was coming after a robust but objective evaluation process.
"Through the impressive development of DTC Botswana and the approval of the sightholders, we will see over 3 000 jobs being directly created and many more created through the supporting auxiliary services such as banking, security and transportation," Shine said.
DTC Botswana, which is an equal partnership company with seats shared equally between the government of Botswana and De Beers, is scheduled to start operations next year, valuing in excess of 36 million carats per annum. Commenting on the criterion used to award the companies the approval to become DTC Botswana Sightholders, Shine, who is also the Managing Director of DTC International, said they mainly looked at the competitiveness of the firms, although local beneficiation was also an important factor.
"We mainly looked at the competitiveness of the diamond manufacturing firms (and how) they would maximise revenue through their established markets," she said.
"However, we also looked at the strategies these companies had put in place to benefit locals, and this is when we looked at factors such as skills and technology, as well as employment."
DTC Botswana board member Kago Moshashane, who is also the Acting Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources, said in as much as local benefiaction was a significant factor in choosing the sightholders, the criteria were chiefly based on maximisation of revenue for Debswana. "Although we are trying to diversify our economy to other sectors such as manufacturing, it is a fact that diamonds still remain our major source of revenue," Moshashane said. "Therefore, there was a need to be certain that these 16 firms have adequate capacity and markets for Debswana to get the full value from its diamonds."
All the 16 companies are foreign-owned, although Moshashane said at least two of them had some local shareholding.
The 16 are Ascot Diamonds, Dalumi Botswana, DDA of Botswana, Diamond Manufacturing Botswana, Eurostar Botswana, H & A Cutting Works Botswana, Lazare Kaplan Botswana, Leo Schachter Botswana, Moti Ganz Botswana, Pluczenik Diamond Company, Rand Precision Cut Diamonds, Safdico Botswana, Suashish Diamonds Botswana, Teemane Manufacturing Company, Yerushalmi Bothers Diamonds Botswana and Zebra Diamonds(IGC).
Moshashane added that he believed the establishment of DTC Botswana would be a catalyst in the country's vision for long-term growth and diversification of the economy by encouraging the development of new business in sectors such as banking, transportation, IT, security and tourism. At present, diamond revenues account for about 33 percent of Botswana's GDP. The relocation of the Diamond Trading Company from London to Botswana is expected to create considerable employment opportunities for Batswana in support services.
Moshashane noted that two international banks, ABN Amro and Antewerp Diamond Bank had already expressed interest to operate in Botswana for the specific purpose of financing the sightholders.
DTC Botswana Managing Director Brian Macdonald said management and shareholders had agreed on supply allocation for the contract of the next three years, which would see annual supply worth US$260 million, US$360 million and US$550 million being released to sightholders in 2207, 2008 and 2009 respectively. From 2009, production from all De Beers mines around the world will be brought to Botswana where it will be put into parcels for sale to customers worldwide.
DTC Botswana will then be the home for the aggregation of all the production of all De Beers mines worldwide and all the mines in which De Beers has joint venture arrangements.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2007 Mmegi/The Reporter. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
